Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley alleges abuse by ex-manager in new memoir
Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley has alleged in his new memoir that he was abused for years by the Canadian rock band’s former manager.
In the memoir, Whibley accuses the club’s first manager, Greig Nori, of grooming and sexually abusing her from a young age.
In the conversation and the Los Angeles Timesthe singer says she hid the dark side of the relationship from her friends for years.
Mr Nori said Whibley’s allegations were “false”.
Sum 41 is an award-winning punk band formed in 1996 that has sold over 15 million albums worldwide.
Whibley’s memoir, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell, published Tuesday, chronicles the ups and downs of the band’s early days on the Toronto music scene and its rise to international fame.
Its start was helped in part by Mr Nori – then in his 30s and the frontman of a popular Canadian indie band. He met Whibley after the show and began mentoring him.
Mr. Nori later became the manager of the fledgling club.
Whibley said one night, Mr Nori suddenly, “passionately” lied in the bathroom at the rave, surprising and confusing the 18-year-old, who was full of excitement at the time.
She alleges that Mr Nori forced her to have sex against her will which lasted for four years.
“Greig always wanted things to happen when we were together,” she wrote in the memoir, according to the Toronto Star.
“I started to feel like I was being pressured to do something against my will.
When the relationship ended, Whibley, now 44, says Mr. Nori continued to abuse him verbally and emotionally.
Whibley says he revealed the relationship with his ex-wife, Canadian singer Avril Lavigne, who said: “That’s abuse! He sexually abused you.”
The couple was married from 2006 to 2009.
The Sum 41 singer he told the Toronto Star in the interview that he thought the relationship with Mr Nori “would be a deep, dark secret that I would take to my grave”.
“But I didn’t know how to tell the story [of the band] except for it, because it had a lot to do with everything that was happening in my life at that time, almost every day. “
The band broke up with Mr. Nori in 2005.
Mr Nori told the Globe and Mail that Whibley’s claims were “false”, and said he had retained a defamation lawyer.
The BBC has contacted Mr Nori for comment.
Whibley told the LA Times that he did not warn Mr. Nori about the allegations in the memoir before it was published.
“I had an internal battle, like, ‘Why do I want to tell him? Because I feel right? Because you are holding this thing for me?” he told this newspaper.
Sum 41 is currently on their farewell world tour and will be disbanding after 28 years together.
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